DRYMACEDUS. 



321 



Through Mr. C. French, Junr., I have received the following notes from Mr. C. McLennan 

 relative to this species: — " Diyiiuimhis hrunneipygius is not uncommon on Pine Plains Station, in 

 the Winimera District, North-western Victoria. It is usually met with in pairs in the thick 

 mallee, although tiie male is more shy than tiie female. Often when setting dingo traps I have 

 had one of the latter sex come within a yard or two of me to see what I was doing, at the same 

 time uttering a sharp shrill note. In habits these birds resemble the Chestnut-backed Ground- 

 Thrush, being usually seen on the ground. They emit a shrill whistling note, and frequently keep 

 moving the tail up and down. In igo2 I found three nests of this species, each containing a 

 single egg, which is the usual number for a sitting. One, with a fresh egg, on the loth September; 

 another on the 6th October, with a fresh egg; and the third on the loth December, with an 

 egg slightly incubated. One was built on the ground, another on the knob of a mallee bush 

 a foot from the ground. They make a foundation, about eight or nine inches in diameter, of 

 thin sticks, and build a nice round nest composed of grass and bark in the centre. I am sorry 

 that 1 cannot send vou the nests just as they are built, for the sticks are all laid very neatly 

 around and nearly level with the rim, but on attempting to remove the sticks they all fall apart. 

 I am sending you two nests, each with the collection of sticks surrounding them. One is the 

 most perfect I have e\er seen." 



The latter nest is an open cup-shaped structure, formed externaUy of very thin strips of 

 dead blackish-grey bark, and is lined inside with pale brownish-white wiry rootlets. Externally 

 it measures four inches in diameter by two inches and a half in depth, the inner cup measuring 

 two inches and three-quarters in diameter by one inch and a half in depth. It is tolerably 

 compactly formed, and bears a general resemblance to the inner lining of some nests of 

 CoUyyiociiida hai'inonica or Oveoica cristata, but the walls are thicker and the inner cup slightly 

 smaller. The sticks forming the foundation, some of which are slightly curved, others nearly 

 straight, average se\'en inches in length, and from an eighth to a quarter of an inch in thickness, 

 and there are about one hundred and fifty of them. The other nest is much smaller and more 

 saucer-shaped, the lining consisting entirely of fine yellowish-white dried grasses, and the sticks 

 surrounding it are shorter and fewer in number. 



The eggs taken by :Mr. McLennan from the above-described nests are oval in form, one is 

 somewhat sharply pointed at the smaller end, and the shell is smooth and slightly lustrous. 

 They are of a very faint greenish-grey ground colour, which is freckled, spotted, and blotched 

 with different shades of brown; on one specimen the markings are uniformly distributed over 

 the shell, on the other they predominate on the larger end where they are confluent and form a 

 broad and well defined zone. Length (A) 1-03x073 inches; (B) 1-07 x 071 inches. These 

 eggs in colour and markings resemble some varieties of the eggs of Artamns supevcihosus or A. 

 persoiiatiis. An egg in the collection of Mr. Charles French, Junr., taken by Mr. J. C. Goudie about 

 fifteen miles from Birchip, in the Western District of Victoria, is oval in form the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth, and lustrous. It is of a pale bluish-grey ground colour which is freckled, 

 spotted, and blotched with dull brown, yellowish-brown, wood-brown, and slaty-grey, the 

 markings predominating on the thicker end and forming confluent patches. Length 0-99 x 076 

 inches. Another egg, taken by Mr. Goudie on the 28th January, 1899, measures i x 075 inches. 

 These eggs are larger, but otherwise resemble, like those of Dvymacedus superciliaris, a not 

 uncommon variety of the egg of the introduced House-Sparrow (Passer domesticus ). 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, when living at iMossgiel, in Western New South Wales, 

 wrote as follows: — " Drymacedus hvtiiincipygins is verv rare here, and during my long residence 

 in this part of the Colony I have only met with it three times, and on one of these occasions I 

 was fortunate enough to discover its nest. It was placed on the ground at the foot of a small 

 tree in thick mallee scrub, and contained a nearly fledged young bird, which assimilated very 

 closely to the surrounding dead leaves, etc., amongst which the nest was built. I certainly 



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